Violent fighting with heavy weapons between the army and the rebels of the M23 continued on Monday, November 14, about twenty km north of the large strategic city of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), local civilian and military sources said.

At the same time, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, facilitator of the Community of East African States (EAC) for peace in DR Congo, called in Kinshasa on the armed groups active in eastern Congo to " Throw down the weapons".

"Fighting continues in Kibumba", in Nyiragongo territory, a resident and a security source said during the day.

Clashes have been taking place since the end of the week in this sector, considered to be one of the last obstacles on the national road 2 towards Goma, capital of North Kivu, a city of more than one million inhabitants whose M23 - supported by Rwanda according to Kinshasa - has been getting closer for two weeks.

New influx of displaced people

"The Rwandan army and its M23 allies continue, with every passing day, to launch assaults on our various positions in Kibumba," the army spokesman in North Kivu told reporters. , Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike.

"Yesterday, Sunday, they once again dared to attack one of our positions. The objective of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo is to bring this aggression back to where it came from," he said. he adds.

This fighting caused a new influx of displaced people to the Kanyaruchinya camp, about 7 km from Goma.

According to the head of the camp, some 40,000 people are now there.

Other M23 movements have been reported about 40 km northwest of Goma, in the Virunga National Park, renowned for its gorillas but also known to serve as a rear base for armed groups, in particular the FDLR (Forces Liberation Democratic Forces of Rwanda).

"The rebels advanced towards Tongo," said a local administrative official.

The population is panicking, the inhabitants are fleeing, he added.

Looting of canteens

In addition, as at the end of last week, witnesses reported in Kiwanja, cited further north on the RN 2, under rebel control, looting of school canteens supported by the World Food Program (WFP), Sunday and Monday.

"There was corn flour and oil. They took this food as food rations," said a resident, who requested anonymity.

The M23, for "Movement of March 23", is a former Tutsi rebellion defeated in 2013 which took up arms again at the end of last year, accusing Kinshasa of not having respected agreements on the demobilization and reintegration of its fighters.

Its resurgence has caused renewed tension between DR Congo and Rwanda.

Kinshasa accuses Kigali of providing support to this rebellion that UN experts and American officials have also pointed out in recent months.

But Kigali denies, accusing in return the Congolese army of collusion with the FDLR, a movement of Hutu rebels, some of whom are involved in the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 in Rwanda.

Uhuru Kenyatta led two days of consultations in Kinshasa, to prepare for an upcoming session of peace talks on DR Congo scheduled for November 21 in Nairobi.

Of the multiple armed groups raging in eastern Congo, "some are internal" to the DR Congo, others "foreign", he noted during a press conference.

All, he insisted, must “silence the guns”.

Local groups must then "join a political process".

As for foreigners, he said, they must understand that "the DR Congo is no longer the battleground for problems that are not of this country".

With AFP

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